Boy George

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Biography

Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd, 14.6.1961)Boy George is an English singer and songwriter, who rose to fame in the 1980s with his band Culture Club.

Childhood: Boy George was born in London, to Gerald and Dinah O'Dowd. His parents were originally from Thurles, County Tipperary and he has five brothers and sisters.

In the 1980s, Boy George and his friend Marilyn became frequent attendees of The Blitz nightclub, which was run by Steve Strange, of the group Visage. Boy George briefly worked at The Blitz as a cloakroom attendant.

Music Career: When Boy George's outlandish dress sense caught the attention of music mogul Malcolm McLaren (the former manager of the Sex Pistols), he arranged for an audition with Bow Wow Wow. However, Boy George decided to form his own band, with the bass player Mikey Craig. They were later joined by Jon Moss on drums, who had previously played with the Damned and Adam and the Ants. The last member to join was Roy Hay.

Culture Club's debut single, 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?' was released in 1982, after they signed to Virgin Records in the UK and Epic Records in the US. The song was a number one hit in the UK and was followed by another Top 10 hit, ''Time (Clock of the Heart)'. Culture Club became the first group since The Beatles to have three Top 10 US hits from their first album.

Colour By Numbers was Culture Club's second album. The track 'Church of the Poisoned Mind' featured Helen Terry and 'Karma Chameleon' added to their growing list of hits, along with 'Miss Me Blind' and 'Victims'.

The various members of Culture Club contributed to the soundtrack to the film Electric Dreams, with P.P. Arnold also collaborating with them.

Culture Club's third album, Waking Up With the House on Fire did not sell as well as its two predecessors, though 'The War Song' was a hit single. Boy George sang one of the lead vocals on the Band Aid charity single 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'

It has been reported that by 1985, Boy George had developed a heroin addiction. Around the time that the band's fourth album (From Luxury To Heartache) was released, Boy George was arrested for possession of cannabis. Michael Rudetski, a former Culture Club collaborator, was found dead in Boy George's home, from a heroin overdose. Soon after this, the band disbanded.

Boy George went on to launch a solo career, with his debut album entitled Sold. In 1989, Boy George started to record under the pseudonym Jesus Loves You and released tracks on his own label More Protein. He also had a hit with the Pet Shop Boys in 1992, entitled 'The Crying Game'.

In 1995, Boy George release a more rock-based Cheapness and Beauty, though the album was not a success. In 1997, Boy George formed another group with John Themis and Richie Stevens, named Dubversive, though they failed to attract any label interest. 1999 saw Boy George collaborating with Faithless on 'Why Go', from their Sunday 8PM album. He also collaborated with Groove Armada.

Boy George continued to work throughout the 2000s, mixing compilations for Ministry of Sound and Fantazia. He also starred in the West End musical Taboo, which was based on his life story (though he did not play himself).

In 2002, Boy George released an acoustic compilation, U Can Never B2 Straight. He then turned to electronica, releasing music under the moniker The Twin. Five years later, he released Time Machine on Plan A Records, which was co-written by Amanda Ghost (who has also written for James Blunt, among others). Boy George has also co-written tracks for Mica Paris, Charlotte Church and the Beach Boys.

Personal Life: In 1995, Kirk Brandon (of Spear of Destiny and Theatre of Hate) sued Boy George for libel after Boy George claimed that they had had a love affair, in his autobiography Take it Like A Man. The case was won by Boy George.

Boy George has been in trouble with the law on a number of occasions, for cocaine possession, failure to appear in court, and assault and false imprisonment. For the latter offence, Boy George was forced to wear an ankle monitor tag and as a result, he was not allowed to enter the final series of Celebrity Big Brother, which eventually starred Lady Sovereign and Vinnie Jones.

Boy George is set to hit the road again with Culture Club this summer, with 40 dates across the US where the band will unveil some brand new material that they've been working on recently. They'll also be dropping their new album at the same time.

Boy George at a Celebrity Apprentice press junket

The eccentric singer announced yesterday (March 20th 2018) that he and Culture Club will be performing across the States, kicking off at the Saint Augustine Amphitheatre in Florida on June 29th 2018 and concluding at the Big Fresno Fair in California on October 5th.

The fifth and current series of ‘The Voice’ will be the last to air on the BBC.

The BBC have confirmed they have lost talent show 'The Voice' to rival channel ITV, after refusing to engage in "a bidding war". The fifth and upcoming series will be the last to air on BBC, before it moves over to ITV as part of their Saturday night line-up.

In a statement BBC Acting Director of Television Mark Linsey confirmed that the upcoming fifth series would be the last to air on the channel. "The BBC is incredibly proud of ‘The Voice’, but the fifth series which starts in January will be our last.”

A rep for BBC talent series ‘The Voice’ has said that judge Boy George was just joking when he claimed he had slept with Prince during a live taping of the show. George’s comments have been making headlines worldwide with many taking them pretty seriously, but it seems some people just aren’t getting the singer’s sense of humour yet.

Boy George was just joking when he claimed he’d slept with Prince.

Speaking to People, a rep for ‘The Voice’ said the whole thing was just "a joke" by the Culture Club frontman which has been taking out of context. "He just went, 'Oh darling, I've slept with him,'" the spokesperson said. "He went on to say that he had Prince posters on his wall as a kid. He was never being serious.”

He made the claim while shooting the new series of 'The Voice', which sent the audience "wild" and caused producers to temporarily stop filming.

‘The Voice’ judge Boy George brought filming for the BBC reality talent show to a halt by making the sensational claim that he once slept with Prince!

The ‘80s pop star and Culture Club singer is reported to have sent BBC production staff into such a frenzy that the shoot, in front of a studio audience, had to be temporarily shut down in the wake of the jaw-dropping claim, according to The Sun.

A source told the paper that the 54 year old singer’s revelation “sent the audience absolutely wild and forced producers to stop filming”.

The star-studded version of 'Gogglebox' is part of a special night of shows on Channel 4 designed to raise money for charity.

Channel 4 is to broadcast a special episode of runaway favourite ‘Gogglebox’, featuring celebrities such as Boy George, Miranda Hart and Geri Halliwell shouting things at the TV and each other.

As part of a night of one-off programming tonight (Friday October 9th) in order to raise money and awareness for the charitable organisation Stand Up To Cancer, a star-studded line-up will be sitting in front of their televisions for a night in and commenting on the week’s shows.

The new series of ‘The Voice’ is still months away from airing, but it appears new judges Paloma Faith and Boy George are not getting along too well. During auditions in Manchester earlier this week the two judges are said to have engaged in a heated argument, leaving Paloma in tears.

According to The Mirror it all started when Paloma thought George was taking too long with his comments and the singer pretended to fall asleep and started snoring. When George called her up on it, Paloma said it was just banter, but he didn’t seem to see the funny side.

The Welsh singer was replaced as a judge on the talent show earlier this month.

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s Director of television has said he feels ‘sorry’ that Tom Jones was upset after the singer was dropped as a judge on talent ‘The Voice’ earlier this month. Following his axing Jones had hit out at the BBC in a Facebook post, saying he had been dropped from the show without ‘conversation or consultation’ by the BBC.

Tom Jones was axed from ‘The Voice’ earlier this month.

“I’ve got huge respect for Tom and I’m truly sorry he’s upset, really sorry,” Mr Cohen said. “I’m a big fan of his, I think he’s a gentleman and an extraordinary figure in music and you’ll have seen the huge respect all the artists on The Voice have had for him throughout.”

Some hopefuls for the BBC reality show had their dreams shattered on Monday, due to an unfortunate IT mishap.

The 500 remaining contestants for BBC series ‘The Voice’ thought that their talent show dreams were well and truly over on Monday, when they all received an email message telling them they hadn't made the cut. According to The Mirror, the email was mistakenly sent out to all 500 of the show’s hopefuls instead of the 300 who were actually being axed from the competition.

The newspaper reports that BBC IT experts released the error a few hours after the emails were sent meaning bosses were forced to ‘frantically ring round some 200 contestants’ to let them know they still had a place in the competition.

The veteran singer will not be returning to the BBC talent show for its fifth season.

Tom Jones has spoken out after being dropped as a judge from BBC talent show ‘The Voice’ ahead of its fifth series. Yesterday the Beeb announced a shake-up on the series' judging panel, which saw Jones axed and Paloma Faith and Boy George brought in.

Tom Jones has been axed from the upcoming series of ‘The Voice’.

In a post on his official Facebook page the veteran singer said he was told on Thursday he would not be returning to the show without ‘conversation or consultation’ by the BBC. ‘In good faith, as part of the team, I’d put the time in my schedule to be involved in Series 5, as I’ve done so for the last 4 years,’ Jones wrote.

Paloma Faith takes Rita Ora's already-vacated spot; Sir Tom dropped in favour of Boy George for series five in 2016.

The British edition of ‘The Voice’ has revealed its line-up of judges for the upcoming fifth season, with one surprise change in store. As has been widely tipped, Paloma Faith will be taking up the vacant seat left by Rita Ora, who defected to ITV’s ‘The X Factor’ earlier this year.

But, despite recently saying how much he was looking forward to coming back for another season, the legendary Welsh crooner Sir Tom Jones has been axed from the BBC show to be replaced with Culture Club singer Boy George.